“So I’m a Spider, So What?” – Don’t sweat the small stuff when there’s a second chance

Artist Asahiro Kakashi’s manga adaptation of writer Okina Baba’s “So I’m a Spider, So What?” brings the action of this unique isekai (Another World) story to life.

The manga follows a young female protagonist whose life took a sudden shift when a digitized casym opened on the top of her classroom ceiling. When she gains consciousness, she finds herself among a sea of spiders in a dark cave. She realizes that she is like them but also must fend for her life when a feeding frenzy breaks out. The girl now spider escapes from them and tries to comprehend her situation. While she is nearly aware she reincarnated into an isekai tale, her rambling thoughts almost cost her life when larger creatures attack her. The leading lady spider needs to focus on the dangers ahead and use her strength to thrive in her second life.

Stories like “Re:Monster” and “The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” show similar situations to “I’m a Spider” where the protagonist becomes a creature instead of human. Still, the main character of “Spider” retains a lot of her knowledge though her past memories are lost. There is a lot of text in the manga but they are all necessary to display the thoughts of the character. It may appear cluttered and take a lot of space but it gives more to the hectic adventures. Still, Kakashi’s clean illustrations shows the action with a good balance between simplistic design and heavy detail. In the first volume’s afterword, creator Baba praises Kakashi’s work and gives reader a special short story.

Publisher Yen Press has both Baba’s original light novel and Kakashi’s manga of “So I’m a Spider, So What?” available for English-reading audiences. Volume Two of the manga hit shelves in April but then both novel and manga’s third volumes will be out in July. For more information, visit Yen Press’s website.